Samos (part 1)

Stay in the UK in typical October weather or take the chance to explore a new Greek island and stay with Graham and Pat in their rather wonderful house there. Quite a difficult and testing decision really.

We took the sensible approach and opted to go and annoy G and P. Flying to Samos is not simple - only TUI have a direct flight there and they wanted to charge like the light brigade for 2 seats (then probably try to sell us scratch cards, food etc etc en route). So, we used some old Luftwaffe miles and went via Vienna with Austrian airlines and then Eurowings. BA - you can learn a lot about service from Austrian. Mind you the cabin crew leader did seem overly optimistic when landing in Vienna as she told us all to thoroughly enjoy "the lovely weather today" - it was 10 C there.

Samos. Well, Firstly the stunning view from G and P's house:

The roofs all celebrate the ducks that frequent the many bays around the island (although many seem to have vanished or perhaps been consumed when times were tough?)

and they have some other adornments to ward off evil spirits, bad people, tax collectors, the Troika from the EU who decide upon the austerity program for Greece etc:

We had a wonderful week, being shown the best beaches, touristy and non touristy locations and learning about the way the island ticks. It certainly ticks differently to most places we have been to before. The Sunday lunch taverna experience was quite something, seeing the Greek extended families going out together and the local traditional music too.

Samos was / is in the front line for migrants and sure enough, although the numbers have dropped dramatically, there are still around 4,000 in a camp near Samos town being "processed" which takes lots and lots of time. The town has around 4,000 locals in it. Here is the camp pictured from the other side of the valley so not great quality:

Although you see migrants in the town, they are not seen on the rest of the island. In the bay near our friends house, some came in to land. The flimsy dinghies they arrive in (or drown from??) have to be seen to be believed:

40 people crammed into that with ineffective pretend buoyancy jackets. The optimistically labelled 30 HP outboard:

Normally the migrants arrive and cut up the boat so they cannot be sent back. Frankly, that is the best thing to do with them, totally unsafe and lightly built things. The greed and cruelty of the traffickers is beyond description.

Realistically, you can easily visit the island and be totally unaware of the migrant issue. The numbers are way down on the 2015 situation and the few that arrive are well managed now.  It is harder to avoid the local "military" though who have the oldest patrol boat still in service we've ever seen and hate having photographs taken. Looking like a world war 2 motor torpedo boat, with cracking planks and peeling paint the Greek armed forces clearly show the lack of public money available. The best bit was an old tank with no engine or equipment inside it, enclosed in a decomposing tin shed at the top of the road to Graham and Pat's house. It was deployed a while ago to show the Turks that Greece was ready for them!

We were treated to some local history:

Amazing culture and civilisation from  2,700 years ago that was on display in the local museum and visible outside too in the ruins and buildings. Britain was busy building primitive hill forts and deploying iron tools around the same time! Most impressive was the "colossal statue of a Kouros" to use their description:

The ladies were most impressed by his shapely rear end:

Have a read of Heraion information. Amazing place.

It wasn't all history and dry museum stuff - Graham managed to borrow the neighbours kayak for us to use and have some fun:

and there is plenty more fun to follow....